The Ghanaian sports media is currently far away from OBJECTIVELY dealing with ISSUES. They are rather concerned with discussing issues CENTERED AROUND THEIR RESPECTIVE CLUB AFFILIATIONS AND BIASNESS TO SOME CLUBS.
The media houses mostly found in this irresponsible act are mostly the MEDIA based IN KUMASI (ASHANTI REGION, GHANA)
I remember last season (2015/16) when Hearts of Oak were beaten handsomely at home by 3 goals to 1 by Wa All Stars, an incident happened on the field of play when Wa All Stars scored their first goal. The goal per observational assessment at the stadium by some journalist was seen as an OFFSIDE.
Later a VIDEO EVIDENCE brought in by the GFA match review panel proved that, it was indeed a PERFECT GOAL but not an OFFSIDE as earlier believed and this exposed the ignorance and pettiness of some journalist in Ghana who are always in a rush to judge issues without gathering accurate facts to be strongly conclusive and decide on issues.
With this issue in focus, a lot of the journalist on the day incited violence by the fans which happened at the stadium when majority of the journalist who run commentary on the day all disputed the goal to be an offside. This made some Hearts of Oak fans threw bags of sachet water onto the field and later nearly lynch the referee (Mr Ernest Baafi) who took that decision. All this rant came to a closure when a CLEAR VIDEO EVIDENCE proved it was a clear goal which many journalist after seeing it came to apologize.
Fast forward, there has been a recent new dispute which has REVEALED THE BIASNESS & IGNORANCE OF SOME JOURNALIST IN GHANA.
A penalty incident that occurred in the 84th minute when Hearts of Oak battled Asante Kotoko in match day 8 of the currently ongoing 2016/17 league season.
Referee Samuel Sukah awarded a penalty which has generated a lot of controversies as to whether it was a true or false penalty.
An initial one-sided video that came out revealed that, the ball which was seen as a deliberate ball to hand by Asante Kotoko defender, Ahmed Adams when he dived to block the on-goal attempt by Hearts of Oak striker Samuel Yeboah which resulted in the penalty. The penalty incident was seen in the widely circulated video as a ball to the defender's back instead of the ball to his hand as seen and judged by the referee on the day.
Discussions have been made, opinions have been shared and arguments have been made but finally the match review panel of the GFA who have the sole responsibility to make decisions after every league game have watched and analyzed proceedings that happened before, during and after the awarding of the penalty and the decision was that IT WAS A CLEARLY AWARDED PENALTY AS THE BALL DULY HIT THE PLAYERS HAND.
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MESSAGE TO THE FOLLOWING JOURNALIST
Now who is killing the game as you always say.
Is it GFA as you always claim?
I can blatantly tell you that, you are all part of it.
Ghanaian sports journalist are nowadays becoming too much sentimental rather than being professional.
If you visit a sports show to jist interview journalist on rules of the game that govern football, I bet you, many will have no idea about it but they always sit in the studio analyze issues with the loudest view and authority that they know it all when it comes to football but they know nothing.
Journalist like Patrick Osei Agyemang (Aka countryman songo) have continuously shown his journalism is based on his stomach, sentiments, club affiliation and biasness. He is gradually losing every respect he has in football and it is just a matter of time that one day, his myopic sentiments will land him into a trouble he can never come out from.
Others like Benjamin Willie Graham (GTV Sports+/Star Times commentator) should take a lesson from this that a commentary on TV is different from a commentary on radio because he was so quick to dispute the Samuel Sukah's penalty decision on the day as wrong without being professional to have stopped pronouncing a judgement on a referee's decision while being a commentator on TV. Per the current decision by the GFA appointment match review committee, he must apologize to his viewers.
Now the one-sided and agent of pollution journalist will have to go back to their various radio stations to denounce their previous pronouncements that has brought the referee into public ridicule.
People like me were calling for calm on the day when the criticisms started on referee Sukah because his position on the day during the incident couldn't have undoubtedly made him to wrongly award that decision, so I adviced many to give him the benefit of the doubt because what he saw was different from what we saw on TV.
Ghana football will also move forward when we have an OBJECTIVE AND PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST in the media circus.
CONGRATULATIONS TO REFEREE SAMUEL SUKAH FOR THE CONFIDENCE TO AWARD THE PENALTY IN SUCH A CRUCIAL TIME AND ALSO STANDING BY YOUR DECISION AFTER THE GAME WHEN YOU WERE INTERVIEWED. NOW YOUR CRITICS WILL GO BACK TO SLEEP. SHAME ON THEM ALL
COPIED FROM ELSEWHERE. Is the writer right at all?